Saturday, January 31, 2009

Ethics Schmethics (a word from one of our friends)

Mother and babies
I've been reading the birding listservs lately, and getting more and more freaked out by the discussion of "ethics" in feeding mice to owls. I mean, what the h*ll???!!! Everyone is oh, so concerned about the health of those godless killing machines, calling owls "magnificent" and on and on and on, and not one person seems to be speaking up for us mice.

Well, I have news for you photographers and birders and other people out there. I did not bear and nurse and raise these babies of mine for you to grab them, throw them in a box, and drive out in the northern wilderness to just toss them on the snow for some cursed owl to rip them up and eat them. Yeah, predation is natural. So if you want to be natural, take off that high-tech outer wear and those heavy-duty boots and get out there, naked as my babies are, and see how much you really like nature before you throw my children, or anyone else's children, out into it. When we know the lay of the land, we can take care of ourselves pretty darned well, and when we get eaten, that's the breaks. THAT is nature. It is not nature, or natural, to force one of us mice into some stupid aquarium or cage with some hot-to-trot male we don't even get to pick, and make us rear babies just so you can take "pretty" photos of an owl. You want photos of an owl the easy way, you toss your own babies out there for it.

There. I've got that off my chest. Now go back to talking "ethics."
baby mice

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't hold back, Ms. Mouse! Tell us what you really think.

Anonymous said...

Right on! Good to hear from the mouse's point of view for once!